


vault confessions

by DestinyFreeReally



Series: 100 Swan Queen Ficlets [20]
Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-18
Updated: 2017-04-18
Packaged: 2018-10-20 11:27:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 810
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10661625
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DestinyFreeReally/pseuds/DestinyFreeReally
Summary: Takes place sometime in the middle of 6x17, in an AU where Emma Swan actually gets five whole minutes to reflect on her trauma before something else traumatic happens to her.





	vault confessions

    Running her thumb along the amber vial, Emma heard footsteps, finally, and braced herself for what she came for.  
  
   “Emma? I’ve been looking for you, what are you-” Regina’s eyes caught the vial over Emma’s shoulder, and strange magic brought into her vault hadn’t been what she expected. “What is that?”  
  
    Something distinctly _Gold,_ Regina would’ve placed her bet. If it would help Emma know, help Snow or David, or even Hook; Regina rolled her eyes. Everything was always at stake, always up in the air… and she couldn’t even count Emma’s visions in the heap of problems. Finding the Savior slumped in her vault, Regina wondered _how_ she could even be surprised. Life was punishing Emma Swan every bit it had tried to punish her, only from where Regina was standing… Emma hadn’t done a thing to deserve it’s wrath.  
  
    “Some kind of magic. Creates a way to see and get to whatever you need it to. _Apparently_ , my parents used it to see _me_. When I was in foster care, before the curse was broken.” Emma’s breath hitched, trying to imagine _which_ foster home they might’ve peeked into. After a while, they’d all become one, or at least very similar, with only the worst things about them sticking out in her memory. The idea that she’d been sacrificed as a baby, sent to save the world; she knew that, she’d spent years dealing with that, and loving the family she’d finally found. Knowing they could’ve all been together, that she could’ve had _someone_ before… Well, it would’ve changed everything, it would’ve changed all their lives so much; Emma tried to remind herself. But staring into the magic liquid, Emma could only blink emptily, and try not to blame the parents she loved.  
  
    “Oh, Emma.” Regina bit her lip, anchored herself to Emma’s shoulder with a soft touch. They’re past the wounds of her old curse, best friends now, really. But that familiar bit of guilt settled easily into Regina’s chest. “You shouldn’t have had to go through that alone, I’m so-”  
  
   “They _saw_ me, though, you know. Like, looked in, broke their own curse, saw me, and decided all over again that I had to be the one to break the curse.” Emma licked her lips, took a breath. “And I’m not an idiot, I get that obviously, yes, without being alone all those years, I’d be a different person, and who knows if Henry…” Braving a look in Regina’s eyes, neither wanted to walk down that path at this time of night; Emma shook her head. “I gave Henry up, because I knew that he’d have a better life without me. They gave me up, knowing that _they’d_ have a better life without me…” Emma’s voice trailed off into a fractured whisper, letting decades-old fears and guilt come slipping into her thoughts. Thinking Hook had abandoned her for not being enough; that had opened fresh wounds, and _knowing_ that her parents put destiny on the shoulders of a small child, _their_ child, rather than just love her first, and save the world after…  
  
   Regina watched the changes in Emma’s face, as her voice dropped to a whisper, and she couldn’t help but reach to hug the Savior. In old apology, and an attempt at comfort. Thinking about Henry at ten years old, thinking about expecting him to bear her burdens, alone; Regina pulled Emma tighter, shutting her eyes at the sound of stifled sobs.  
  
    “I know I need to go save them, and Hook,” Emma leaned back, to straighten up, her arm still over Regina’s shoulder, “I need to put my past in the past-”  
  
    “You don’t _need_ to do anything.” Regina tightened her mouth, tried to bite her tongue, and keep her voice soft. “I think.. I think I know a way we can help your parents; a way we can dilute the curse and they’ll be able to stop taking the world in shifts.” Flicking hair from her face, Regina’s mind still stayed with small Henry, with small Emma… How in some ways, all of them were fighting their old selves, their old battles. “You aren’t alone anymore, Emma, and I don’t just mean Hook.”  Hook, the one-handed wonder who’d been stumbling through loving Emma Swan like it was at all _difficult;_ Regina shook her head, swallowing those thoughts.  
  
    “Really? A way to break the curse?” Whistling an exhale, Emma felt lighter with one less problem to tackle alone. The vial of magic still sat there, expecting things of her she couldn’t articulate or answer for. “You would’ve gotten Henry out of there.” She stated, without question, jutting her chin at the magic..  
  
   “You would’ve, too.” Regina squeezed Emma’s hand, tightly, and it helped the both of them. “Let’s go take a nap, Emma.” Regina let out a laugh, at Emma’s confused brow. “You’ll see.”


End file.
